1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a disposable cellular telephone and, more particularly, to a disposable cellular telephone that is incorporated into a business card using paper technologies.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As electronics technology advances, electronic devices are generally manufactured in a more cost effective manner so that certain devices can be designed to be disposable. For example, it is known in the art to manufacture cellular telephones and pagers by a process where electrical circuits and related components are patterned and formed on inexpensive substrates, such as paper, making the cellular telephone or pager inexpensive and readily disposable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,848 discloses such a disposable cellular telephone and pager. This patent describes a process whereby a strip of a flexible and inexpensive material is printed with a circuit trace in a desirable pattern for a telephone circuit. The strip of material is then folded upon itself to give the cell phone or pager the desired rigidity. The folded assembly is punched to form recesses therein for holding those electrical components that cannot be formed by conductive traces. Additionally, certain integrated circuits that are relatively thin can be deposited on the substrate and be interconnected with the circuit traces in a desirable manner. The folded assembly is then covered with a protective coating, and various other components, such as a key-pad, microphone, speaker and battery are attached to the folded assembly and connected to the circuit in a well known manner.
As electronics technology continues to advance, more of the electrical components that go into cellular phones can be made thinner, smaller and more readily disposable.